Educational Science

Wham! Wham! Wham! Now Get Some Sleep, Ma'am

NEW YORK—The sound echoed throughout Montefiore Medical Center, like somebody pounding dozens of nails around the clock. Wham! Wham! Wham! The source was actually a pill banger, used to crush medications for geriatric patients who can't swallow whole pills. The process occurred repeatedly each shift, disrupting sleeping patients and annoying...

Dairy Products Might Cause More Human Twins

Women who consume animal products, specifically dairy, are five times more likely to have twins than those who do not, a new study finds. The reason may involve growth hormones fed to cows. A growth protein called IGF is released from the liver of animals and humans in response to...

UPDATED MAY 12, 2006 AT 2:42 PM ET Correction: This article in its original form was inaccurate. The study involved two types of air purifiers, those commonly called ionic and those that employ a process called ozonolysis. Only those using ozonolysis were found to contribute to ozone levels that can...

Some Americans May Get Too Many Nutrients

Amid concern that some people take too many dietary supplements, the National Institutes of Health today released preliminary recommendations that generally urge caution. The statement from the agency, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, concerns multivitamin and mineral supplements, collectively called MVMs. Conclusions were reached by...

Climate Change, Not Humans, Killed Large Beasts

Failure to adapt to a drastically changing climate, and not overkill by humans or disease, most likely lead to the extinction of mammoths, wild horses, and other large mammals after the last Ice Age, a new study suggests. But this fresh take on an old argument might not be the...

New Clues to the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Weather experts have hindcasted the storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior during a November 1975 storm. Hurricane-force gusts and waves coming from an unexpected angle likely contributed to the disaster immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot in the song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, researchers say. All 29...

Frog Hops Back into Existence

Survivors of a frog species that was thought to be extinct have been found. The survivors, discovered in the mountains of Columbia, might be the last holdouts of the painted frog (Atelopus ebenoides marinkellei). Scientists are now racing to protect them. Other clutches of the frogs have suffered a lethal...

Al Gore Takes 'Inconvenient Truth' to Cannes

CANNES, France (AP)—Michael Moore has been the American on a mission at the Cannes Film Festival for the past few years. This time it's Al Gore's turn, with the studious but engrossing documentary An Inconvenient Truth.'' The former U.S. vice president climbed Cannes' famous red carpet in black tie this...

Multimedia Babies: What's a Parent to Do?

WASHINGTON (AP)—They're bombarded with electronics starting in infancy, from the new Sesame Street'' for 6-month-olds to game-playing laptops for toddlers. But when does being a multimedia youngster help—and when does it hurt—children's malleable brains? The claims vary widely, from proponents who say TV and baby software can help kids learn...

'Poseidon' Packs Punch of Real Science

MOVIE REVIEW Pity the cruise ship Poseidon, for fortune does not follow her. But it’s that same doomed nature that drives director Wolfgang Petersen’s 2006 update of the 1972 disaster epic The Poseidon Adventure. One is forced to wonder whether another remake of producer Irwin Allen’s Adventure is warranted—especially after...